Keegan takes slick City back to the future

Manchester City stepped back in time on Saturday. Their football was of an enchanting style not witnessed at Maine Road since the days of Bell, Lee and Summerbee and, with heads swimming, thoughts returned to Kevin Keegan's declaration, 15 months ago, on becoming the club's 17th manager in just over two decades.

It was with a straight face that Keegan had revealed that his masterplan was to be challenging Manchester United for the title within five years. "I'm not going to put a date on it," he had said, "but we have to be looking to win the league."

At the time City were going through one of their more melancholic periods, relegated at the end of a thoroughly clueless season under Joe Royle and besmirched by back-page allegations of a fags-and-booze culture. United, meanwhile, had just ambled to their third successive title. As Keegan babbled away, someone whispered it must be St Jude's Day, the patron saint of lost causes.

The disparagement has now stopped. Scepticism has engulfed Maine Road for longer than their supporters will care to remember, but if Saturday's victory was not just another false dawn (and there have been a few) then, ludicrous as it might seem, Keegan's masterplan may even be ahead of schedule.

Such were the standards of excellence under Manchester's slate skies that it was easy to agree as Keegan hailed the performance, and particularly the opening 45 minutes, as one of the best of any side under his management, some compliment given the mesmerising stuff of which his Newcastle team of the mid-90s were capable. It was audacious and effective, even if their domination was not reflected with a more handsome margin of victory.

Neither should it be overlooked that City's 17 attempts at goal came against a side that, in all probability, will qualify for the Champions League this week and have developed a reputation of their own for a brand of attacking football with substance.

"We played like that a few times last season, but the First Division is nowhere these days," said Keegan. "Because this was Newcastle, a class act, and because this was the Premiership, the only place to be, you couldn't help thinking: 'Wow!' The only thing that was truly amazing is that we did not have an unbelievable scoreline."

It was indeed remarkable that City managed just one goal, and a scruffy one at that, with lingering suspicions of offside before Darren Huckerby, a much better player than he is often given credit for, applied the finishing touch to a fortunate ricochet inside the six-yard area.

It was a profligacy they might have regretted had Kieron Dyer not shown such wastefulness when presented with two open invitations to restore parity but, as it was, Keegan should not be overly concerned about their lack of ruthlessness when there was the bonus of watching his side, barring one or two hairy moments, play with a solidity in defence that was scarcely evident in losing to Leeds a week earlier.

Peter Schmeichel, marvellous on his debut, has added a vocal quality missing since Stuart Pearce's retirement - "like a great bear," said Bobby Robson - while Sylvain Distin, a summer steal from Newcastle, brings the ball out of defence with greater finesse than any other defender in the English game, Rio Ferdinand included.

Shaun Wright-Phillips is also emerging as a player of the highest calibre, Eyal Berkovic and Ali Benarbia tormented Newcastle with their cute little through balls and, ahead of them, Huckerby and Nicolas Anelka possess the speed and unpredictability to unsettle the most accomplished defender. Newcastle were made to look ordinary.

These are heady times in Moss Side, particularly if Keegan can get the balance right between attack and defence. Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool might not be quaking but, slowly and surely, the days when City's fans were ashamed to declare their allegiance are fast fading. Of all the things Keegan has brought to Maine Road one stands out: respectability.